which
the democratic peoples were fighting. Hereafter in any negotiations
with Germany the President by general consent acted as the spokesman of
all the allied Governments, and the peoples of the allied countries
accepted his declarations as a sort of codification of the principles
of the war. It must be left for the historian of the future to decide
how much of this deference was due to appreciation of the President's
service in clarifying the allied ideals, and how much to his position
as head of the most powerful nation in the world, whose intervention
was expected to bring victory to the Allies.

But in other countries as well, Wilson's ideals had become a dogma to
which everybody professed allegiance no matter what his views. The
President's principles, as publicly expressed in his speeches, had been
in effect a declaration of worthy ends, such as all right thinking
persons desired. He had been less concerned with the means to those
ends, and consequently all who agreed with his principles were inclined
to assert that the President's ideals were exemplified by their own
practices. In 1917 the President enjoyed the unusual experience of
seeing American liberals, British Laborites, three or four kinds of
Russian Socialists, neutral Socialists, neutral clericals, neutral
pacifists and even certain groups in the enemy countries all
proclaiming their adherence to the ideals of President Wilson.

For a time, indeed, it seemed that the war might be decided by moral
force. Beginning to take alarm at the activity of America, and not yet
certain of the effect of the Russian revolution (which was having grave
consequences in Austria-Hungary) the Germans inclined during the Summer
of 1917 to a new peace offensive. Bethmann Hollweg was dropped on July
14, and five days later a majority of the Reichstag voted for a peace
virtually on the basis of the status quo ante. In August the Vatican
issued a peace proposal suggesting a settlement on that general
principle, with territorial and racial disputes to be left for later
adjustment; and the Socialists of Europe were preparing to meet at
Stockholm for a peace conference of their own influenced by the same
ideas.

But the President had changed his opinion that America had no concern
with the causes and the objects of the war; he had had to search for
and explore the obscure foundations from which the tremendous flood had
burst forth. His Flag Day speech on June 14 showed that h